Don Juan · Chapters

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Chapter companions for Don Juan by Lord Byron.

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Chapter 1
Preface to Cantos VI, VII, and VIII
Byron defends his depiction of the Siege of Ismail, noting that some incidents attributed to Don Juan actually occurred, such as saving an infant (based on the Duc de Richelieu). He attacks the late Marquis of Londonderry (Castlereagh) as a despotic, weak minister, criticizing the public's hypocritical mourning and the cant of the era. He also addresses accusations of blasphemy, citing Voltaire and arguing that persecution does not refute ideas, and condemns the hypocrisy of English society.
Chapter 2
Epigraph
The epigraph juxtaposes Horace's advice on the difficulty of treating common subjects with originality against Shakespeare's assertion that virtue does not eliminate life's simple pleasures, setting a tone of ironic defiance and worldly wisdom.
Chapter 3
Fragment on the Back of the MS. of Canto I
A brief, drunken meditation on the desire to escape the burdens of past and future, written in a state of intoxication.
Chapter 4
Dedication
Byron dedicates his poem to Robert Southey, the Poet Laureate, launching a scathing satirical attack on Southey, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and other Lake Poets for their political apostasy and literary pretensions. He also condemns the statesman Castlereagh as a cold-blooded, vile oppressor responsible for Irish bloodshed and European tyranny, while asserting his own independent political and poetic stance.
Chapter 5
Don Juan
The opening of Byron's satirical epic introduces the hero's birth and parentage, focusing on the contrasting characters of his parents, Don José and Donna Inez, and setting the stage for his early education and the hypocrisy of Spanish society.

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Preface to Cantos VI, VII, and VIII

Epigraph

Fragment on the Back of the MS. of Canto I

Dedication

Don Juan